I can honestly say I cannot tell if you are serious about the whole idea. Assuming you are: how do you define 'one user at a time'? Are you putting some sort of time limit (as in magnitude of days or greater) on before you let the next person download?

If not, even if you queue people up so there can only be one download at a time, we are talking the potential for thousands of downloads per a book per a day.

This is quite different than lending a physical copy of a book out.

At this point, I am not clear how your fancy new site could be classified any differently than something like pirate bay - even if the uploader truly is the original owner of said ebook.

I must be missing something. That or you've successfully trolled me.

What he's missed, or is ignoring, is that the only way to even try to claim that only one person can borrow a given book at a time is some kind of DRM with very strong encryption. You know, the sort of stuff he claims to hate and "not believe in"?

Not that I believe for one second that he's got the skill or the balls to try what he's talking about, but if he does, he could end up actually being arrested for it. (At which point, he can prove what a brave revolutionary he is by taking the first plea bargain offered, and turn over his customer list to the prosecutors.)

What he's missed, or is ignoring, is that the only way to even try to claim that only one person can borrow a given book at a time is some kind of DRM with very strong encryption. You know, the sort of stuff he claims to hate and "not believe in"?

Not that I believe for one second that he's got the skill or the balls to try what he's talking about, but if he does, he could end up actually being arrested for it. (At which point, he can prove what a brave revolutionary he is by taking the first plea bargain offered, and turn over his customer list to the prosecutors.)

I'm with you, cobber, the whole idea is just a bizarre fantasy which he never intends to try.
However, your suggestion about what he should do if arrested is even more illogical and bizarre; his logical approach would be total non-cooperation, ie the exact opposite of your suggestions.

I'm with you, cobber, the whole idea is just a bizarre fantasy which he never intends to try.

Oh, I think, in the dark, dusty, cobweb covered recesses of what passes for his mind, he intends to do so, in order to show that he's a manly man and a rebel, and all that. I just don't think he ever will.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jozawun

However, your suggestion about what he should do if arrested is even more illogical and bizarre; his logical approach would be total non-cooperation, ie the exact opposite of your suggestions.

I didn't say he should do that, I said I expect he would, if he were arrested. Honestly, it's hard to imagine he would ever show the technical skill or marketing ability to make enough of a splash to actually get noticed that much. If he were to try, and produce a web site that actually worked (and didn't immediately get compromised by malware writers due to poor security), I would expect it would last about a week, and get taken down via DMCA notice, and that would be that. He'd whine about it here, to the usual chorus of pointing and laughing, but he wouldn't do anything to resurrect it. And not enough people would bother with it to be worth pushing for criminal enforcement.

But if he did manage to get arrested for criminal copyright infringment, I'd expect he'd cave at the first opportunity, logical or not. He's no martyr, no matter how much he wishes he was.

The thing about the site mentioned is that it already exists, but we fail to accept its reality.

Millions of ebooks have been bought in the last decade, I suspect that millions have been deleted as well, this is a crime against knowledge as you well know.

It is in our nature to maintain the knowledgebase.

If the sites TOS required you to click a button saying that you were the original purchaser of the book that you are uploading I think that would clear up any confusion in the courts. Not that I would ever attend court, except to debate the nature of the court system itself...

I'm fairly certain that the site will require an active connection to the site itself, cloud reading. That way it is easy to ensure that only one reader is reading the book at a time.

I am not sure why malware writers would want to get involved except perhaps by making their own copycat site with ads (AKA googlebooks).

Perhaps "cloud reading" was meant to be "cloud cuckoo land reading".
Still, taustin seems to think he's going to try to get it up and running, so we could be in for some interesting times.

Is there some part of "I don't believe he'll ever even try" that indicates I think he'll try? In all seriousness, dude, I gotta ask: What kind of drugs are you on? Seriously, man, you smoke too much of it.

Did you read the part you snipped off the end? It made perfect sense to me with that bit. Or am I missing the joke?

(Note: as an IT professional, who runs several web and mail servers, I know a thing or two about this.)

What you've missed is that Giggles has no clue what he's talking about, and what it would take to create such a site. It's inconceivable to me that he's ever made more than minimum wage, if he's ever held down a job at all, and there's no way in hell he's go tthe money to buy the expertise, and it's clear he doesn't have it himself.

He doesn't understand why anyone would break in to a web site, while I've got several megabytes a day of web server logs of people trying to do just that. He believes that if he's arrested, it's up to him whether or not to go to court, and he clearly has no idea what the law says. Given Mobilereads sensitivity to piracy, I'm often amazed that Giggles hasn't been tossed for good for his open advocacy of it.

Is there some part of "I don't believe he'll ever even try" that indicates I think he'll try? In all seriousness, dude, I gotta ask: What kind of drugs are you on? Seriously, man, you smoke too much of it.

Yet another descent into mere personal abuse.
Why is it that Giggleton's half-baked pseudo-anarchist ramblings always ultimately cause this type of reaction from those who think copyright law was handed down on Mount Sinai?

(Note: as an IT professional, who runs several web and mail servers, I know a thing or two about this.)

What you've missed is that Giggles has no clue what he's talking about, and what it would take to create such a site. It's inconceivable to me that he's ever made more than minimum wage, if he's ever held down a job at all, and there's no way in hell he's go tthe money to buy the expertise, and it's clear he doesn't have it himself.

He doesn't understand why anyone would break in to a web site, while I've got several megabytes a day of web server logs of people trying to do just that. He believes that if he's arrested, it's up to him whether or not to go to court, and he clearly has no idea what the law says. Given Mobilereads sensitivity to piracy, I'm often amazed that Giggles hasn't been tossed for good for his open advocacy of it.

The joke you've missed is Giggles.

Okay, but it didn't seem to me that that was DiapDealer's objection when he quoted that line. I have bought one book with DRM in my life, and that was through Google Play because I could read it via a web browser without having to try to deal with the DRM (I use Linux on my desktop). The browser app requires you to be logged into Google Play, and only shows you two pages at a time (perhaps even as an image rather than text), without giving you any option of downloading anything permanent. That's essentially the system that Giggleton is describing. I know it would be complicated and expensive to build such a site, but I don't see it as an insane idea.

perhaps I am shifting the goalpost slightly here, but there is at least one publisher that makes all of its books available to read online:http://www.openbookpublishers.com/
sadly, it does not work on an ereader (at least not on mine), but though you cannot download anything for free, you can read the whole book online if you wish.

Granted, in these cases authors are academics who earn their crust in other way, but at least these are not of the types that try to make a buck (or substantially more) by cutting it into the "principle of" textbooks markets. At least in academia, research production should be made available for free!

So what you are saying, I think, is your site would make it so you would only be allowed to read from your computer while connected to the site/your account? vs. downloading the book? That makes more sense and would appear on the surface to be 'more legal' (or course I really have no idea to the legality), but not sure I'd want to be sitting at my computer to read a novel.